Mr. David Greenway reports

RECHARGE RESOURCES ISSUED DRILL PERMIT FOR POCITOS ONE DRILL PROGRAM TO FURTHER DEFINE ITS NI 43-101 INFERRED MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE OF 143,000 TONNES LITHIUM METAL 760,000 TONNES LITHIUM CARBONATE EQUIVALENT

Recharge Resources Ltd. has secured drill permits for two wells in the Pocitos 1 block and three wells in the Pocitos 2 block. Negotiations are being finalized with a driller to start the initial five-well campaign. Applications have been made to the Ministerio de Produccion y Desarrollo Sustentable del Gobierno de Salta (Minister of Production and Sustainable Development) (MPSD) to drill a total of six wells in the Pocitos 1 block, of which two will be earmarked for production at 20-centimetre to 25 cm diameter, and a total of four wells in the Pocitos 2 block, of which two will be production diameter. All 10 wells will be drilled in HQ and then the selected production wells will be expanded in diameter and fitted with pumping equipment. The remaining wells will be used to monitor aquifer levels.

The two wells approved for the Pocitos 1 block that were recently announced (Jan. 2, 2024) at the Pocitos lithium brine project are located 10 kilometres from the Pocitos township in Salta province, Argentina. Ancillary preparations for food and housing are currently being arranged.

The objective of this drill program will be to upgrade the recently announced National Instrument 43-101 inferred mineral resource estimate (MRE) by providing drill hole, porosity and permeability. Given the drill hole spacing, the company's geologists will be targeting a proven and probable category, as well as collecting pre-engineering pumping data in preparation for building a Ekosolve direct lithium extraction (DLE) pilot plant and follow-on full-scale 20,000-tonne-per-year plant (tpy) at the project.

The recently announced MRE for the Pocitos lithium brine project was prepared by WSP Australia Pty. Ltd., and was estimated at 143,000 tonnes of in situ lithium metal and 13,000 tonnes lithium metal yield (using porosity estimates), which equates to a lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) of 760,000 tonnes and 69,000 tonnes, respectively. The LCE is calculated from the ratio of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) to lithium metal (5.32:1). The calculations assume no process losses. In the latest pilot plant test at Ekosolve, 94.9 per cent of the lithium metal was extracted as lithium chloride and converted to battery-grade lithium carbonate.

See the company's press release dated Dec. 20, 2023.

The geophysics and block model prepared by WSP shows a sandy unit extending across Pocitos 1 that has higher porosity -- refer to page 14-4 of the National Instrument 43-101 report entitled "NI 43-101 technical Report -- Pocitos I and II, Salta province, Argentina." The company's geology team is keen to drill this area to define the magnitude of the sandy halite unit and the brines it contains.

WSP indicated in the report, at the Dec. 4, 2023, Li2CO3 price of $16,573 (U.S.)/tonne, the annual revenue is estimated at $338-million (U.S.) (for a 20,000 tpy plant). Operating costs were estimated by Ekosolve to be $2,300 to $2,750 per tonne, or $55-million (U.S.) at $2,700 per tonne in the WSP NI 43-101 report.

Supply and demand

Benchmark Minerals has confirmed in its "Trillion dollar battery" 2023 paper that there are 238 gigafactories currently producing LFP (lithium iron phosphate) and other lithium batteries requiring an estimated three million tonnes of lithium carbonate by 2030. There are more than 60 additional gigafactories being built to achieve a total estimated 8.9 terawatts of capacity. The top 10 lithium producers in the world are currently producing a total of 715,000 tonnes in 2023. This represents just 23 per cent of the 2030 demand estimate.

This is another milestone in the company's endeavour to build up to a 20,000-tonne Ekosolve direct lithium extraction plant at the Pocitos project in order to supply Richlink Capital Pty. Ltd. up to 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year, as previously announced under a letter of intent of offtake.

David Greenway, president and chief executive officer, commented: "I am delighted with our drill permit progress, and the recently announced inferred mineral resource estimate of 760,000 tonnes LCE prepared by WSP geologists, hydrogeologists and project engineers. I am thrilled to now have drill permits in hand to continue developing this project, both to reclassify the resource to proven and probable, but also as a pre-engineering step in preparation for a pilot plant and the company's ultimate goal of producing 20,000 tonnes per year at the Pocitos lithium brine project."

About Pocitos lithium brine project

The Pocitos project is located approximately 10 kilometres from the township of Pocitos, where there is gas, electricity and accommodation. The Pocitos project is approximately 1,332 hectares and is accessible by road. Collective exploration totals over $2-million (U.S.) developing the project, including surface sampling, trenching, TEM (transient electromagnetic) and MT (magnetotellurics) geophysics, and drilling three wells that had outstanding brine flow results. Locations for immediate follow up drilling have already been designed and identified for future exploration. Lithium values of 169 parts per million (ppm) from drill hole 3 packer test assayed from laboratory analysis conducted by Alex Stewart were recorded during the project's December, 2022, drill campaigns. A double packer sampling system in HQ diamond drill holes were drilled to a depth of up to 409 metres. The flow of brine was observed to continue for more than five hours. All holes had exceptional brine flow rates.

Ekosolve produced lithium carbonate at a purity of 99.89 per cent, where extraction of the lithium from the brines was above 94 per cent, that is, 159 ppm of lithium would have been recovered from 169 ppm.

The company has published a National Instrument 43-101-compliant inferred mineral resource estimate for the Pocitos lithium brine project, which has been estimated at 143,000 tonnes of in situ lithium metal and 13,000 tonnes lithium metal yield (using porosity estimates), which equates to a lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) of 760,000 tonnes and 69,000 tonnes, respectively. The LCE is calculated from the ratio of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) to Li metal (5.32:1). The calculations assume no process losses.

The full NI 43-101 report, dated Dec. 18, 2023, and entitled "Technical report for the Pocitos I and II, Salta province, Argentina," can be found on SEDAR+ under the company's issuer profile.

Qualified person

Phillip Thomas, BSc Geol, MBusM, FAusIMM, MAIG, MAIMVA (CMV), a qualified person as defined under NI 43-101 regulations, has reviewed the technical information that forms the basis for portions of this news release, and has approved the disclosure herein. Mr. Thomas has joined the company in the capacity of chief operating officer and director on Nov. 21, 2023. He is a shareholder.

About Recharge Resources Ltd.

Recharge Resources is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on exploring and developing the production of high-value battery metals to create green, renewable energy to meet the demands of the advancing electric vehicle and fuel-cell vehicle market.

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